Gift baskets make lovely presents for both businesses and consumers to give, providing you with a variety of markets in which to promote your creations. Take a look at your competition to determine their pricing, how they market their baskets and to whom they sell. Then, find ways to stand out from these businesses, such as including one-of-a-kind goodies, local products or offering same-day delivery service, to help buyers remember your company when they want to buy a gift basket.

Audience

Know the audience you want to target with your promotion, such as businesses that thank clients or woo prospects with baskets. You may want to focus on different industries, such as real estate companies, new car dealers or service businesses that are more apt to use baskets.If you sell to consumers, look for common characteristics, such as their income level, location, their reasons for sending a basket and how much they’re willing to spend. Knowing these demographics helps you figure out which local publications prospects read or the events they attend so you can buy ad space to get their attention.

Online

Set up a website with plenty of photos of the different baskets you’ve created. If you customize baskets, tell the story behind each photo, explaining what the customer wanted and how you created a beautiful basket full of goodies that met his needs. Provide resources on your website to convince customers to buy, such as including an article on how businesses should ask for referrals from happy clients and then reward referrers with a gift basket that includes items related to their business.Set up a social networking page, and ask your followers to share your posts about the interesting products you include in baskets and your background in designing each basket to create a beautiful presentation. Add posts about the items you included in recent baskets, such as all-organic products for an environmental engineering company or lots of pink-colored goodies delivered to a woman fighting cancer.

Network

If you sell to businesses, go to chamber of commerce meetings and business association groups in your area to meet potential clients. To get even more attention at these events, sponsor a door prize, and bring plenty of brochures or flyers to hand out so everyone knows who designed the basket that everyone wants to win. Take your networking to the next level by gathering email addresses from people you meet at these events who express interest in using gift baskets in their business, and add them to your email database.Finding consumers through networking may require getting involved in your local PTA, joining community or nonprofit groups and getting the word out in your religious, social and activity circles. Rent space at a farmer's or flea market, and bring a variety of baskets and plenty of flyers to show what you do.

Email Marketing

Segment your email database into two groups: consumers and businesses. Then, send occasional marketing emails to each group. For businesses, send tips about the importance of sending thank you gifts for referrals and using baskets to reward employees who met sales goals.Emails that go to consumers might include reminders of upcoming holidays where gift baskets would be appreciated or ideas for sending gift baskets to family, neighbors and friends. Send each group special promotions you’re offering on certain baskets. Use the emails to further educate your audience about your delivery area, the quality of the items that go in your baskets and the price range of the various sized baskets you sell.

References

About the Author

Nancy Wagner is a marketing strategist and speaker who started writing in 1998. She writes business plans for startups and established companies and teaches marketing and promotional tactics at local workshops. Wagner's business and marketing articles have appeared in "Home Business Journal," "Nation’s Business," "Emerging Business" and "The Mortgage Press," among others. She holds a B.S. from Eastern Illinois University.